Travel plans for Christmas break

Tomorrow we´re heading to Málaga, we´re getting a ride there with a guy from the climbing club.  We´re going to rent a car in Málaga. Here is where the itinerary deteriorates and allows for plenty of ´winging it´.  We want to check out a couple national parks, one is called El Chorro, the other is Torcal de Antequera, both coincidentally have some great rockclimbing.  We are also going to go up the coast to Almería and will end up in the Cabo de Gata area which is the part of the coastline that is more unspoiled.  We will do some backpacking here along the coast.  I still have to go online and check the bus schedules so we can do some sort of overnight thru hike.  We will probably drive up the coast a little further, too.  We´re also planning on going to Ronda and some other white villages and seeing some of the caves around there.  The guide books are coming with and we´ll see how many little villages we want to 

explore on any given day.  

our guidebooks are actually just a little newer than these books

getting ready for camping, "yep, it´s long enough"

Thoughts on English. . . by Amy

So I was thinking this week how weird it is that I charge people to have a conversation with them. Really that is what most of my classes consist of here. Someone comes over to my place, we sit there for an hour and talk and then they give me ten euros and they leave. And that´s that. Ok, so it´s not that easy I suppose. I have to correct them and try to translate the phrases they say from Spanish to English. Now this may not sound too hard either but I am starting to struggle with finding the right words in English lately. . . guess that´s what happens when you immerse yourself in Spanish. For the majority of my 10 students they just want conversation classes which is fine with me. I also have three kids, ages 4, 5, and 7 whom I play games with that teach them english. It´s pretty fun but hard to get them to talk in english sometimes :)

But that´s what I do. I talk to people and get paid to do it. pretty sweet deal I guess

Ubeda, Baeza, Cazorla according to Phil

the green pottery of Ubeda

Jabalquinto palace in Baeza

El Salvador Church in Ubeda

Cazorla

    Cathedral in Baeza

Ubeda

Last Thursday was a holiday so we had a long weekend and decided to go to Ubeda, in the Jaen region.  My co-worker Cristina is from Ubeda and she and her husband were also going to Ubeda for the weekend so we rode with them.   Amy and I stayed in a campground outside of town but we ended up hanging out with Cristina and Luis a lot and getting rides with them as our campground was a ways out of town.  Thursday after setting up camp, Luis picked us up and a group of us went out for tapas and some typical plates and then walked around a bit seeing the sights in Ubeda and going in the El Salvador church.  We went out for tapas again for dinner.  We also ordered some side plates.  Friday, Pepe, Cristina´s father, gave us a ride to Baeza, a neighboring town.  Both Baeza and Ubeda are very old and have a medievil feel.  In Baeza we walked around and really enjoyed the cathedral, especially climbing the bell tower.  We returned to Ubeda via bus and went out for icecream as it was my birthday.  Amy couldn´t have any because of her milk allergy.  Friday night we went out for tapas and some side plates once again.  This seems to have been the theme of the weekend.  Saturday Cristina and Pepe were going to Jaen to visit Cristina´s sister so we rode along.  We went rock climbing on the cliffs beneath the castle there.  It was shrouded in fog all day, but fortunately it wasn´t too cold.  Sunday, found us going to Cazorla with Luis and Cristina with the express purpose to eat tapas.  Cazorla is a small town at the base of the mountains.  We had two Olympic platters which is a big plate of tapas with like 5 different tapas for each person.  Next we went to Luis´s uncle´s house for cafe and then returned to Ubeda and headed home.  

Mission BDay: Bodega Visit (a little late)

Going down into the cellar which was hand dug 9 meters into the limestone.  

Down in the cellar. I´m holding a pig skin which they used to hold wine in.

We visited a winery the other day.  It is a small organic winery.